1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to articles and systems of articles, primarily appliances and storage/organizing devices, that are designed to mount under downwardly facing, vertical or horizontal surfaces such as, but not limited to, cabinets, shelves and countertops, in work areas such as those found in kitchens, workshops, offices, hospitals, utility rooms, storage rooms, laundry rooms or industrial/fabrication facilities.
1. Prior Art
Functional, flexible, accessible work and storage area is needed in virtually all home, office, shop and industrial environments. The size of this usable work and storage area can be substantially augmented by firmly and securely mounting articles such as appliances (e.g., can openers, bookholders, flat panel video displays) and organizing/storage vessels (e.g., spice racks, first aid kits, knife drawers, tool boxes) onto downwardly facing surfaces, such as underneath cabinets or shelves. Any system or arrangement addressing undersurface storage can increase its usefulness by firmly and securely mounting articles onto cabinet vertical workspace surfaces such as cabinet doors and frames and also by enhancing countertop access to those article.
Prior to A System For Mounting, Accessing, Moving and Folding Away Articles Under a Downwardly Facing Surface (U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,882—Behroozi—Sep. 5, 2006), prior art that have sought to make use of the space under downwardly facing surfaces (primarily cabinet bottoms) fell into two major categories.
The first category accounts for the majority of prior art where each invention provides functionality for a specialized purpose, such as an under-cabinet bookholder, can opener or spice rack. Those mentioned below are designed to fold up under a cabinet bottom to take up less space when not in use and pull down again when access and use is required. Specific examples of these inventions include: Document Display Shelf Apparatus (U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,634—Webb—Aug. 20, 2003), Book-holder (U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,145—Ando—Jul. 17, 1984), Disappearing Bookholder (U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,948—Krauss—Jan. 25, 1983), Book-holding Apparatus for Kitchen Type Cabinet (U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,725—Spangler—Jan. 22, 1980), Bookholder (U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,416—Saecker—Jun. 3, 1952), Bookholder for Cabinets (U.S. Pat. No. 2,254,832—Weight—Sep. 2, 1941), Accessory Drawer (U.S. Pat. No. 2,492,697—Higley—Jan. 8, 1947) Hidden Storage Shelf (U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,544—Beckerman—Dec. 23, 1969), Space-saving Undercabinet Spice Jar Drawer (U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,272—Thompson—Sep. 14, 1993), Knife Drawer Unit (U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,349—Culver—Jun. 17, 1958).
These inventions are designed to be mounted in a stationary location and remain in one place fixed under a cabinet and above a work surface. They cannot be moved easily once installed. It follows that these articles also cannot easily be removed for servicing, adjustment and/or cleaning. Virtually all require tools and some requiring partial dismantling to do so. To install them requires planning, careful measurement and the use of tools, including some specialized cutting and fitting.
The methods for mounting and removing these articles are different for each (i.e., they are nonstandard). Many have inherently weak or unstable mountings due to the small footing areas they span or due to their dependence on only a comparatively thin bottom panel of the cabinet for stability. To install or remove articles, users must expend considerable effort bending and twisting to properly orient themselves and their tools in order to see the article and installation area underneath the downwardly facing surface.
In use (when deployed/pulled-down) many of these prior art are inconveniently oriented with respect to the user and their intended use and lack the adjustability to remedy the situation. In only a few cases do the articles have some limited means to adjust their position for easier use and/or access by the user.
Items wider than these units themselves cannot be folded up into the units (e.g., a wide book in a narrow bookholder) since such wide items would interfere with the folding mechanisms and/or support framing.
None provide a means for easily (i.e., by hand, without tools) moving and remounting the article along the length of the downwardly facing surface (e.g., a cabinet bottom) and it follows that none of these articles can be moved in this way while in use.
Since each has its own means of permanent mounting, none of these specialized articles are designed to be interchangeable (i.e., swapped) with one and other. Due to their differences in design approach and a lack of common parts, very little manufacturing, development, user training and marketing efficiencies (cost savings) can be realized among these inventions.
A second, smaller group of inventions attempts address the issue of mounting articles under a downwardly facing surface with a standardized approach that can be used for a variety of articles. These inventions have many significant limitations including their instability, lack of a pull-down/fold-up capability, difficult and inflexible installation, significant limitations on lateral positioning of items and their cumbersome and inflexible means of mounting, moving, and removing articles. These systems also do not employ any common/standard means of power delivery where electric power is required for a specific article (e.g., flat panel video screen).
A System for Mounting Articles Under a Downwardly Facing Surface (U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,764—Bellin—Feb. 28, 1989) employs one or, optionally for heavier objects, two tracks that attach to a downwardly facing surface and provide evenly-spaced cutout slots which can receive standard brackets in which articles can be hung. Each track must be attached via a single line of screws/fasteners to a cabinet bottom thus the strength of the cabinet bottom and the straight-line configuration of the screws limit the strength and (torquing) stability of the system.
Since the attachment of articles to the track depends on engagement with cutout slots in the track, the track does not lend itself to being made available in a nested, telescoping format. As it cannot expand lengthwise to fit the mounting surface, the track would have to be cut to size to fit under the cabinet. As such installation requires measuring and cutting, or standard lengths of track must be made available to the user. If provided in standard lengths, it is likely these standard lengths would not fully utilize the potential mounting space under the cabinet in most cases.
Also articles can be attached to the track only at discreet intervals as dictated by the cutout slots. The width of the articles installed should also fall loosely within the same discreet intervals to ensure a proper fit within the mounting brackets. Articles also must remain in the same position when not in use and cannot be folded up out of sight and out of the way of a potential work area.
In order to change the position of an article, the article must be dismounted using screwdriver or thumbscrews/wing nuts and remounted in another set of slots. This not only requires a good deal of effort but also in many cases requires that the article be at least partially dismantled and taken out of use to be removed or moved. Height, tilt, protrusion are not adjustable by any means in this system.
An Under-the-cabinet Appliance Having a Unitary Mounting Bracket and Method for Assembling the Same (U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,440—Garber—Oct. 14, 1997) provides a standard under-cabinet bracket for mounting appliances such as can openers and coffee makers. This system requires that the appliances be manufactured to fit the specific bracket design. The bracket is installed using tools in one place under a cabinet and the system makes no provisions for lateral adjustment/moving of appliances along the bottom of the cabinet. There is also no facility for folding the appliance up out of the way when not in use, no standard means of power delivery, and no way for users to adjust the appliances height, tilt and protrusion relative to the cabinet and themselves.
Similarly, Small Appliance Modular Hanger System (U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,754 B1—Melito—Jan. 29, 2002) provides a standard under-cabinet bracket more adjustable and therefore more adaptable to mounting appliances of differing dimensions than the prior example, but the system requires tools to install and adjust an appliance. Once installed the appliance is fixed in one place under a cabinet and the system makes no provisions for lateral adjustment/moving of appliances along the bottom of the cabinet. Again, there is also no facility for folding the appliance up out of the way when not in use, no standard means of power delivery, and adjusting the appliances for height, tilt and protrusion relative to the cabinet requires tools.
A System For Mounting, Accessing, Moving and Folding Away Articles Under a Downwardly Facing Surface (U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,882—Behroozi—Sep. 5, 2006), (U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,162—Behroozi—Aug. 26, 2008) and (U.S. Pat. No. 7,837,170—Behroozi—Nov. 23, 2010) provided a convenient, standardized means to mount, move, remove, and store articles under a downwardly facing surface such that the articles can be inconspicuous or essentially hidden from view under the downwardly-facing surface, and such that pull-down access to said articles can be gained easily by a user and can be adjusted for height, tilt and depth relative to the user and adjusted laterally along the entire, continuous facing edge of the downwardly-facing surface and whereby said access and orientation adjustments and said manipulations can be executed easily by hand and without the use of tools. The system could also be very easy to install requiring little or no planning, measuring, cutting clamping or fitting.
The system did not however address storage and access on vertical surfaces and countertops. The easel could not swivel. Also its rail arrangement dictated that the undercabinet articles fall essentially within the standard width of its rails and carriage, and that any additional space provided by the cabinet depth could not be utilized outside of this footprint. The rail arrangement depicted (two facing concaved elongated members) also dictated use of a retractable footing arrangement that was not mechanically optimal with respect to manufacturing cost and reliability of engagement. There was also no specific space or method provided for integrating undercabinet lighting with the system.
Other prior art that disclose storage and/or access systems not specifically designed for use on downwardly facing surfaces, some that employ universal joints and/or triangular supports that ride along a single rail, include (U.S. Pat. No. 8,413,822—Baily—Apr. 9, 2013), (U.S. Pat. No. 7,793,907—Woodward—Sep. 14, 2010), (U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,350—Wolff—Dec. 3, 1991), (U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,692—Peinsipp—Dec. 15, 1987) and (U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,914—Torme—Jun. 17, 1975). (U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,929—Diening—Mar. 12, 1957) discloses a triangular support that rests on a table top for supporting a book. These patents may be interpreted as showing the common feature of triangular supports for payloads on rail-based storage or for tabletop support. However, none of the references taken in any combination suggest transforming a rail-based storage support so that it rests on the counter and then coupling a payload to the storage support where the tram was previously connected or vice versa.